Browsing televison last night, I stumbled upon a show on PBS station WEON in Rhode Island where singer Janice Ian was featured. I did a visual and mental double take when I saw her. I don’t remember ever seeing a picture of her but the image of the 53 year old folk singer had an immediate effect on me. I’ve always felt her song “At Seventeen” was a classic. I was in my twenties at the time the song was being played. I had heard about this music phenom who had been recorded at fourteen.
I was immediately enthralled by the lyrics and the open honesty of her voice. The first line, “I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queens,” immediately hit a chord among many in my generation, and older.
I could have been a male model for the song, having endured a horrific childhood of physical and mental abuse by a father, who had, himself undergone a similar life initiation. My self image was abysmal. He had completely ripped out my value system and it has affected me in some form or another ever since.
Janice’s words were a life vest thrown out to me. It is no coincident that “At Seventeen” is in my computer’s music files. It never fails to bring me to a certain place, where I am my own person; where nobody can hurt me anymore.
The timing of this encounter is no accident. I needed to experience this, what with the brutal, continuing carnage in Iraq and the senseless act of the maddened soul that took so many lives in Western Virginia this week, my mind was desperately searching for answers.
Janice, of course, does not propose to have all the answers. But she certainly can provide a safe haven, where, for a few moments, we can immerse ourselves in her message, subscribe to her vision and emerge with faith confirmed.
I encourage you check out Janice’s website: www.JaniceIan.com.
Posted by copas 